Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reported on some of the key dates coming up for the NHL season in his rumblings column today.
• March 3: The NHL trade deadline. That’s a Friday, by the way.
• June 28-29: The NHL Draft in Nashville, which the NHL announced last month. That’s a Wednesday and Thursday. Remember that the NHL went to a Thursday-Friday draft this past July in Montreal, getting away from its normal Friday first round and Saturday end-of-draft set-up.
• July 1: Opening of free agency. So finally back to the normal July 1 Free Agent Frenzy day, for the first time since pre-pandemic. Free Agent Frenzy was Oct. 9 in 2020, July 28 in 2021 and July 13 this past year.
The one day in between the draft and free agency is going to be fun. The less prep time for NHL GMs between major decisions is only a good thing, and will hopefully lead up to some additional excitement leading into the draft as well. I could go for a Saturday day two of the draft, but it’s worth it for the short turnaround.
